At least 20 people have died of hunger-related complications in Baringo and Turkana. These counties and 10 others have not had rains since April last year. And the drought continues to take its toll.
These areas are perennial food-deficit areas and it begs reason why the government is year-in, year-out caught flat-footed in a situation it should have taken care of long ago.
More than 800,000 Kenyans need food aid in northern Kenya and a few other regions like Kieni in Nyeri. In Turkana and Baringo, villagers are feeding on a wild fruit called soruch, which has to be boiled for hours to be edible or else it is poisonous. All this at a time the food granaries of Rift Valley are filled to capacity.
On Friday last week, Agriculture CS Eugene Wamalwa made a well-choreographed statement that the government will not let anybody die of hunger as he flagged off food trucks to Turkana. Why did the minister have to wait until people die before his intervention? And when are the rest of the starving masses going to get their food? County and national governments should not have let it get to this extent.
Where is our pride as Kenyans when our brothers and sisters die of starvation? This should never happen in the 21st century.
